Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990 TAG: 9003290068
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Along with the project would disappear the developer's offer of land for an elementary school in western Blacksburg.
The transportation department asked Snyder Hunt to dedicate land in the proposed community off Prices Fork Road for a future route connecting the U.S. 460 Bypass to the area west of town.
"The options are pretty clear," resident highway engineer Dan Brugh said this week. The company is "going to have to make the necessary arrangements or there will be no access allowed on the bypass."
Company president David Reemsnyder was not available for comment.
Snyder Hunt's plan, as approved by Blacksburg Town Council, calls for extending Southgate Drive across the bypass, through Virginia Tech property and linking up with Tall Oaks Drive in Hethwood I.
The company is offering to build the road - which it estimates will cost $500,000 - to handle a projected increase of 16,000 trips per day.
But this road by itself does not meet the state's long-term plans for a road network to handle the growing population in Montgomery County, Brugh said.
The highway department controls access to the bypass and would have to approve any construction plans. Brugh said he would not submit the project to the board without Snyder Hunt's "clear, up front" provision for a right of way.
The company has resisted the idea of a link from Hethwood to Merrimac Road southwest of Blacksburg since last fall when a group of area residents who do not live in Hethwood presented their own proposal for such a western route.
In a series of letters between Reemsnyder and Brugh over the last month, the developer maintains that a Merrimac Road connection would bring unwanted traffic through the residential neighborhoods and destroy the self-contained, safe environment of the planned community.
". . . As risk-taking developers, we cannot allow negative impacts we know, from experience, will decrease the value of the product we bring to the marketplace," Reemsnyder wrote.
Carol Bousquet, Blacksburg's senior planner, said that if Snyder Hunt makes any major adjustment to its plans - such as dedicating right of way for another outlet - the town's ordinance rezoning the 389 acres for Hethwood II would be void and the company would have to apply for another rezoning.
During heated public hearings last year, many citizens, including older residents of Warm Hearth Village in the county, charged that the Southgate Drive extension would serve only Hethwood and preclude other major access roads for areas west of Blacksburg in the future.
The highway department has said that any penetration of the bypass must be a grade-separated interchange, costing about $3.5 million, and that only one will fit between Prices Fork Road and the Blacksburg business exit.
"We can't look at one development that is ready to happen and ignore something that may be done years down the road, particularly when it's going to eliminate our options," Brugh said.
Both town and highway department projections show that the Prices Fork community will be one of the fastest-growing areas in the county. Brugh said the best way to handle the traffic will be to link the bypass to Merrimac Road - rather than four-laning Prices Fork Road beyond town limits.
Brugh said the Southgate Drive extension can be built but only if Snyder Hunt sets aside land for a western route. He stressed, however, that a Merrimac Road connector may not have to be built at all, depending on future needs.
Snyder Hunt's rezoning approval also contains an offer of 22 acres in Hethwood II to the town and county provided the localities build a school, library and recreation center there.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors this week passed a resolution supporting the idea of a connection from the bypass to the west to serve future development in the Prices Fork and Merrimac communities of the county.
Supervisor Todd Solberg, who was absent from the meeting, blasted his fellow supervisors for jeopardizing an offer of free land for the proposed elementary school.
"I'm very disappointed with the county in not working with the developer," said Solberg, who lives in Hethwood and has long pushed for a school in his community. "If Hethwood II folds because of this road situation, I don't know where another school site would be."
Solberg said the county has a "fall-back" site in Blacksburg somewhere along Prices Fork Road, though "it certainly wouldn't be convenient to Hethwood for kids to walk to and from school."
He said that roughly 50,000 people - or a tenth of the county's population - would live in the Hethwood community if Hethwood II is completed in 12 to 15 years.
Also, the town is proceeding with plans to build its new recreation center with an indoor pool on Patrick Henry Drive.
Nancy Hurst, chairwoman of the Montgomery/Floyd County Regional Library Board, said the board has recommended to the county supervisors that they build a new Blacksburg branch downtown, near the current library.
by CNB